Gears of War designer is ready for another shot!
After a heavy personal wake up call and a fresh journey into sobriety, legendary Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski is quietly returning to game design.
After years out of the spotlight, Cliff Bleszinski, the legendary game designer everyone knows as "CliffyB", is quietly plotting his return to the gaming world. He hasn't launched a shiny new studio or announced a massive flagship project just yet, but the feeling to build new worlds and draft up mechanics is officially back.
Most people know Bleszinski from his two-decade run at Epic Games, where he helped turn Gears of War into a cultural titan. But his post Epic venture, Boss Key Productions, didn't fare as well. The studio dropped LawBreakers in 2017 to great reviews, but the player count simply never showed up. An attempt to recoup losses with a battle royale called Radical Heights couldn't save the company either. Boss Key shut down in May 2018, leaving Bleszinski exhausted, defeated, and ready to walk away from game design for good.
In an interview with 80 Level, Bleszinski opened up about a heavy personal wake up call. Earlier this year, an alcohol-related seizure landed him in the hospital. That scare pushed him to get sober, enter outpatient treatment, and start therapy. Getting clean didn't just rebuild his physical health but it also unblocked a well of creative energy he thought he had lost forever.
Bleszinski wants to be remembered for the iconic games he's made, not his rockiest personal moments. And right now, sobriety is giving him the bandwidth to actually care about game design again. Rather than throwing himself straight back into the pressure cooker of running a full team, he's easing in. He is currently consulting on Soul Walker, an upcoming 3v1 asymmetrical horror game, using the role as a low-stakes way to get his hands dirty again.
Bleszinski says his heart is in cooperative, player-versus-environment (“PvE”) design, the exact kind of gameplay magic he tapped into when he helped create Gears of War’s famous Horde mode. He’s taking things slow, but one thing is clear: CliffyB isn't done with games just yet and we hope to see him making great games very soon
Most people know Bleszinski from his two-decade run at Epic Games, where he helped turn Gears of War into a cultural titan. But his post Epic venture, Boss Key Productions, didn't fare as well. The studio dropped LawBreakers in 2017 to great reviews, but the player count simply never showed up. An attempt to recoup losses with a battle royale called Radical Heights couldn't save the company either. Boss Key shut down in May 2018, leaving Bleszinski exhausted, defeated, and ready to walk away from game design for good.
In an interview with 80 Level, Bleszinski opened up about a heavy personal wake up call. Earlier this year, an alcohol-related seizure landed him in the hospital. That scare pushed him to get sober, enter outpatient treatment, and start therapy. Getting clean didn't just rebuild his physical health but it also unblocked a well of creative energy he thought he had lost forever.
Bleszinski wants to be remembered for the iconic games he's made, not his rockiest personal moments. And right now, sobriety is giving him the bandwidth to actually care about game design again. Rather than throwing himself straight back into the pressure cooker of running a full team, he's easing in. He is currently consulting on Soul Walker, an upcoming 3v1 asymmetrical horror game, using the role as a low-stakes way to get his hands dirty again.
Bleszinski says his heart is in cooperative, player-versus-environment (“PvE”) design, the exact kind of gameplay magic he tapped into when he helped create Gears of War’s famous Horde mode. He’s taking things slow, but one thing is clear: CliffyB isn't done with games just yet and we hope to see him making great games very soon
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